Welcome to Part Three of our Website Traffic Blueprint article series, where we show you how to create an automated traffic machine using WordPress.
In Part 1 of this article series, we described the process, and explained why using an expertly configured WordPress website or blog is the key to generating automated web traffic …
(With an expertly configured WordPress site, all you have to do to attract more web traffic is publish great content regularly!)
In Part 2, we focused on critical setup decisions. We helped you understand the best way to start if you don’t have a website yet, how to set things up if you already have a website, and what to do if your site was built with WordPress.
(In Part 2 we show you how to set up WordPress on your domain)
In this section of the series, we discuss the configuration stage of the WordPress traffic automation system. We will help you understand why an expertly configured site is different from a professionally configured website, and what type of work is required to make sure that when everything is set up and fully configured, new traffic will automatically start flowing simply by consistently posting fresh content on your website.
WordPress Web Traffic Automation System – Configuration Phase
Being able to drive more traffic to one’s website is often cited by website owners as one of the greatest challenges they face online. Businesses are becoming so much more competitive worldwide and are looking for any opportunity they can to get better results online.
Being able to automatically generate traffic on demand can provide website owners with a tremendous advantage over other competitors. For WordPress users, having an expertly configured website allows their business to get off to a flying start from the moment their site is launched.
The Difference Is In The Way Your Site Is Configured
There is a difference between an expertly configured WordPress site and a site that has been professionally installed and set up by an expert website developer but not necessarily configured to take advantage of everything WordPress has to offer.
Here’s one way to explain the differences:
With a WordPress website that has been expertly configured you get a web presence plus an automated online business marketing system!
(An expertly configured website gives you a web presence with an automated online business marketing tool!)
Not only does it take extra work to build and integrate an automated online business marketing process into your website, but also a special kind of expertise.
Let’s illustrate this with an amusing anecdote.
A True Story (Kind Of) …
All was moving along in the gizmo workshop when things suddenly ground to a halt.
As no one could figure out what happened, the plant manager decided to call in an expert to fix the problem.
Soon afterwards, the expert arrived and, without saying a word, headed out directly to the main control box. After staring at the board for less than 2 minutes, the expert then took out a tiny little hammer and made a single tap about 1 inch from the top-left edge of the unit.
Immediately, all the machinery started working once again.
The manager was delighted as he thanked the expert, who left just as quickly as he had arrived.
A couple of days later, the factory manager received an invoice for the sum of $5,000.
The factory manager rang back the expert, demanding to know why they were charged so much for less than five minutes work. He promptly requested an itemized invoice before hanging up.
The next day, an invoice statement arrived in the manager’s in-tray. Upon opening it, this is what he saw:
The #1 challenge most businesses face online is driving new visitors to their sites.
How much money did the widget plant stand to lose when the machines stopped working and no one in the factory floor was able to fix it? Did the expert not have the right to ask to be compensated fairly for years spent building up the knowledge, skills and expertise that allowed him to quickly assess and fix a costly problem?
Similarly, if you could have your site fully set up so all you have to do is publish new content and search engines, social sites and dozens of other online properties would be immediately notified, how much time and money would this save you?
(How much time and money would you save if you could automate the process of attracting new visitors to your website?)
While the solution to many challenges may seem ridiculously simple once it’s been implemented, it rarely turns out to be that way.
Expertly configuring a WordPress site requires more than adding some pages with content and configuring a few basic settings. It also requires knowing where to tap! In other words, knowing things such as:
- Which programs you need to install for certain things to occur on your site.
- Which accounts you need to set up and activate to get certain outcomes
- Which settings you need to configure in order to ensure that things work as planned, etc.
(Generating traffic automatically with WordPress is a process that requires knowledge and expertise)
Although this part of the WordPress traffic automation system may not seem technically difficult, it can be quite involved and time-consuming. This is because it’s not as simple as installing a plugin, tweaking some options and settings in your dashboard area or clicking a button … it’s all of this and so much more.
The configuration phase is a complex process that involves your server, your site, and a number of third-party sites and/or online services …
(Expertly configuring your website involves more than just configuring a few settings in WordPress)
If we create a simple diagram showing all the steps involved in the configuration process, it would look something like this …
(A simplified flowchart showing the configuration process)
Let’s take a look at these steps in more detail.
Your Web Server – Configuration
We’re not talking about the process of configuring your webhosting account for website installation purposes. What we are talking about, is tweaking settings in your web hosting account specifically for handling web traffic …
(In the configuration phase, your web server settings need to be fine-tuned for handling both good and bad traffic)
Not all traffic is positive traffic. Some of the traffic your business can attract will be unwanted traffic like bot spam, security threats, brute-force bot attacks, etc.
This stage of the configuration process, therefore, requires evaluating your needs, planning for both good and unwelcome traffic and then adjusting settings in your server accordingly. This can include looking at things like configuring spam protection and preventing security threats, to configuring your domain and email forwarding, setting up 404 redirections, etc …
(Have you configured your hosting control panel settings for handling things like email forwarding, page error redirects, etc?)
After checking your web server settings and configuring these, the next step of the configuration phase is to set up a number of third-party sites.
External Sites
The purpose of setting up external sites is that all of your content should be posted to one central location (your WordPress site) and from there, it will automatically get syndicated to other parts of your traffic system, or notify traffic-related web properties and services.
Once these external platforms have been added to your setup, content with links pointing back to your site will get automatically fed to these platforms. Your content will then be given exposure to a new audience and source of traffic.
Some of the third-party sites will need to be set up before configuring your settings to speed up the configuration process and some will need to be done later, during the automation phase.
For example, here are just some of the accounts you will need to have set up:
Google Webmaster Tools
(Google Webmaster Tools)
Google Webmasters lets you inform Google about your site’s pages, submit XML sitemaps for automatic page indexing, and provides you with important data, tools and diagnostic reports about your website.
After setting up your Google Search Console account and entering site details, your details can be used with web traffic settings in WordPress using plugins like Yoast SEO (see further below) and other applications.
Google Analytics
(Google Analytics)
Google Analytics lets you improve your website’s performance, SEO, marketing activities, sales conversions, and more, by tracking all user behavior, pages visited, keywords searched for, search engine and social media referrals, etc.
Once your Google Analytics account and site data are set up, your account information can be added to WordPress via plugins and and fed to other useful applications.
Bing Data And Tools
(Bing Data And Tools)
Bing Webmaster Tools is similar to Google Webmasters. After setting up your account and entering site details, use this information with web traffic-related settings in WordPress and other applications.
WordPress.com
(WordPress.com)
As explained in Part Two, WordPress provides users with the option of a hosted vs self-hosted website. We recommended choosing the self-hosted WordPress option if you are planning to build a professional business presence online.
WordPress.com (the hosted option), however, provides some great features, which can be accessed by various WordPress plugins. We recommend setting up an account at WordPress.com, therefore, and we’ll explain how to integrate this into your web traffic generation system in the next installment of this article series.
Social Media And Social Bookmarking
(Syndicate your content automatically to your social media and social bookmarking accounts and drive new traffic to your site)
You will need your various social media and social bookmarking accounts set up in order to integrate these with your traffic generation system.
After setting up and configuring everything, you will be able to syndicate your content automatically to your social media sites and attract new visitors to your site.
Make sure you have accounts and profiles set up with all the main social networks – Facebook, Twitter, YouTube, LinkedIn, Pinterest, etc.
There are many social sites you can set up accounts with and syndicate your content to. You don’t need to create accounts with all of them, just choose the ones that will work with your setup and/or content sharing tools.
(There are lots of social bookmarking sites you can syndicate your content to. Image source ShareThis.com)
Additional Sites, Aggregators, Etc.
There are a number of online platforms and content aggregators that can serve as secondary sources of traffic. Some are free or provide free accounts, and some are paid services.
For example, here is a content aggregator site that allows you to add your WordPress site feed …
RebelMouse
(RebelMouse)
RebelMouse is an aggregator for your RSS feeds and social profiles. Your content is displayed in a Pinterest-like format and users can follow your website.
There are many different technologies and third-party applications you can incorporate into your web traffic system. Please contact us if you would like to explore this area further and discuss a configuration plan to suit your needs.
Once you have configured your server settings and set up external service accounts, it’s time to configure your WordPress site’s settings.
Configuring Your WordPress Site For Traffic
The first step in configuring your site for traffic is to ensure that its global settings have been set up correctly.
Let’s go over some key areas.
WordPress – Global Settings
By default, your WordPress admin area includes a Settings section that allows you to modify your site’s global settings …
(WordPress admin menu – Settings)
General Settings
Content entered into fields like Site Title and Tagline affect traffic by influencing your site’s SEO, search indexing, etc …
(Settings Menu – General Settings Screen)
Writing
The Writing Settings section contains one of the most important and often overlooked built-in traffic notification systems available to website owners …
(Global Settings – Writing Settings)
As stated below the Update Services section title,
When you publish a new post, WordPress automatically notifies the following site update services …
Unless you or your webmaster have purposely chosen to prevent search engines from indexing your site – see next section, then your site will automatically ping the list of update services entered into the Update Services box
By default, when WordPress is installed, only one service is available …
(Update Services – A Powerful Traffic Feature)
WordPress lets you notify dozens of update services automatically – just add a list of update services to this section and WordPress takes care of the rest …
(Notify dozens of update services automatically with WordPress!)
Download A Comprehensive List Of Ping Services For Your WordPress Site!
Click the link below to download a comprehensive list of reliable and authoritative ping services for your WordPress site or blog:
Download A List Of Ping Services For Your WordPress Site
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Note: If you need help setting up the list of ping services on your site, we recommend using a professional web services provider. You can find professional WordPress service providers in our WordPress Services Directory.
Reading Settings
This section affects how your content gets seen by visitors when they visit your home page and blog pages.
The syndication settings in this section can have an influence web traffic. For example, your choice of displaying the full content vs a summary of your post, affects how your content appears in RSS readers and blog post digests, and could play a part in someone’s decision to explore your content further, and whether or not they will visit your website or blog to get the rest of the content from a partial feed, or read the content in full without the need to click through to your site.
As far as traffic is concerned, however, the most important setting here is whether the Search Engine Visibility check box is ticked or not.
Typically, you want to encourage search engines to visit your site. Leaving this box unchecked enables your site to notify various update services when new posts are published (see Writing Settings above). Unless you have a specific reason why search engines should not visit your site, make sure this box is left unticked …
(WordPress Settings – Reading Settings)
Discussion Settings
Although this section is mostly concerned with how users engage with content on your site, you have the option to allow notifications to blogs linked to from your content, and to allow link notifications from other blogs (pingbacks and trackbacks). This can work for you, but it can also drive bad traffic in the form of SPAM comments …
(Global Settings – Discussion Settings)
Permalinks
Your Permalink settings allow your site to publish posts with SEO-friendly URLs …
(Global Settings – Permalinks)
Here are some of the ways your SEO-friendly URLs can be configured …
(Configuring permalinks)
To learn more about setting up WordPress permalinks, go here: Using Permalinks To Improve Your WordPress SEO
WordPress – Plugin Settings
WordPress provides users with plugins that help to add just about every kind of functionality to your site, including plugins with features that help to improve traffic generation.
Here are some types of plugin categories that affect traffic and plugin examples
WordPress Security Plugins – Blog Defender
Once again, it’s important to configure your website for handling both good traffic and bad traffic. No blog is immune from cyber-attacks.
(Security Plugins stop bad traffic from harming your web presence)
Security plugins like Blog Defender help to make your WordPress site invisible to bot and hacker attacks.
To learn more, go here:
SEO Plugins – Yoast SEO
SEO plugins help drive traffic by improving the search engine friendliness of your web pages …
(Yoast SEO – WP Plugin)
Use a powerful plugin like Yoast SEO to improve your site’s search engine optimization. Properly configured, this plugin not only makes your web pages easier for search engines to find and index, it allows you to specify how your content will show up in Google’s search results and social media pages, e.g. Twitter, Facebook, and GooglePlus.
Social Sharing Plugins
Allowing your visitors to easily share your content online can help boost traffic to your site, especially if you provide content that adds real value to readers.
(You can add social sharing to your website easily using free or inexpensive plugins)
WordPress users can easily add social sharing buttons to their site with free or inexpensive plugins.
Most social sharing plugins let you choose which social sites visitors can share your content to, embed social buttons into your content, set up default post messages, display/hide share counters (e.g. number of shares), etc. Some social plugins even allow you to set up protected content areas on your site which users can unlock by linking or tweeting your page.
WordPress Traffic Theme Settings – Configuration
As well as configuring various plugins, many WordPress themes also include features that help you drive more traffic to your site.
For example, in addition to options and settings for configuring the design and layout of your website, some themes also include built-in features that let you improve search optimization and site linking structure for faster indexing, easily add analytics, social sharing buttons, etc …
(Many WP themes like Graphene (a highly customizable free theme) allow you to configure settings for better traffic results)
With a number of quality themes, adding social sharing features to your website is as easy as clicking a button …
(Many WordPress themes have built-in social sharing features that can be easily turned on with the click of a button)
Additional Areas To Configure For Better Traffic Results
Last (but by no means least) in the web traffic configuration process, are the areas that need to be set up outside of the global settings.
This includes:
Website Compliance Pages
Once again, when preparing your website for an increase in visitor numbers, it’s important to plan not only for both bad and good traffic but also for all the situations that can damage your business when more and more people start finding and visiting your website.
If you are making money online (or are planning to), you need to ensure that your site complies with legal requirements of government agencies that regulate how business online is done.
(Is Your Site Compliant?)
We have written a detailed article about adding legal pages to WordPress here:
Categories & Tags
Post tags and post categories help to improve your site’s SEO, which helps to increase traffic.
(WordPress post categories help improve traffic by improving your site’s search optimization.)
As we strongly recommend in this article, your site’s categories and tags should be discussed and set up during the Website Planning Phase.
In the configuration phase, you will want to review and make sure that the tags and categories that have been set up.
Add A Site Map To Your WordPress Site
A site map that lists all of your posts and pages to visitors is not only a useful navigation tool for users, it can also help external applications find more of your site’s content …
(Site Map – great for site visitors and beneficial for web traffic too!)
An HTML site map and an XML sitemap are not the same things. HTML site maps provide users with a logical map of how your content is structured, while XML sitemaps are mostly code that only search engine bots can read. Although Google can index your site just using an XML sitemap (which a plugin like Yoast SEO will create for you – see earlier section), allowing visitors to find more pages on your site can result in increased traffic.
404 Error Page – Don’t Forget To Configure It!
When visitors type in the wrong web address or click on an invalid hyperlink, they will normally be presented with a 404 Not Found page …
(Default WordPress 404 Not Found page)
Configuring your 404 Error Page allows you to recover traffic that may otherwise be lost. …
(Configuring your 404 page allows you to recover web traffic that may otherwise be lost.)
Although a 404 page can be set up on your web server, there are several WordPress plugins that let you easily configure your 404 page inside your WordPress admin area.
WordPress Traffic Automation System: Configuration Stage – Summary
Once you have your WordPress site fully set up and expertly configured, all you need to do then to generate traffic is add new content consistently.
The process of expertly configuring a WordPress site, however, is quite involved and elaborate , requiring the configuration and integration of various components and external web properties …
(Traffic Blueprint – Configuration Phase Checklist)
The kind of expertise required to perform the configuration process can take some web developers a long time to learn.
Once you have configured your WordPress site, the next step is to automate the process. This step is covered in the next section of our series.
This is the end of Part Three
To read more, click on the link below:
This article is part of an article series aimed at helping small business owners learn how to grow their business and drive traffic organically using a WordPress website and proven marketing strategies that are easy and quick to implement.
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"If you're new to WordPress, this can stand on its own as a training course and will stay with you as you progress from beginner to advanced and even guru status." - Bruce (Columbus, Ohio)
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